


We'll Make This Work

by douchecasters



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-03
Updated: 2014-02-03
Packaged: 2018-01-11 00:38:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1166520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/douchecasters/pseuds/douchecasters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn's the jock and Liam's the nerd but they have a secret thing on the side and Zayn gets tired of everyone's bullshit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We'll Make This Work

“Come on, Li, it’s not that bad,” my friend Niall tried to encourage me as we walked into the doors of a hell hole.

“Okay,” I snorted. I hated school so much. It wasn’t like I hated the education. It wasn’t like I had bad grades. Those were both fine. It’s just that hearing the word ‘faggot’ screamed into your ear every two seconds was a little annoying. Plus, the beatings in the bathrooms weren’t so pleasant either.

“Hey, just a few more days until summer,” he smiled. Niall always tried to keep me optimistic.

“Yeah, I guess,” I said nodding ever so slightly. I mean, it wasn’t his fault school was like this. And I was excited about summer. Because the little ball of light that kept me going wasn’t Niall – although he helped me a lot – but it was Zayn. Since school was ending, I would get to see him a lot more often.

Zayn was the captain of the football team and the king of the junior class. He was sweet to everyone and really good looking. He was smart and sensitive and caring. And…he was my boyfriend.

Of course no one knew. Not even Niall knew we were together. Niall didn’t even know I talked to Zayn. I didn’t mind keeping it that way. Zayn wasn’t ready to come out and I wasn’t going to push him into anything. He kept me safe too. When the other jocks wanted to beat me up, he would stop them in a subtle way. He would say stuff like ‘guys, we have to get to class’ or ‘we can’t get in any trouble, otherwise we’re missing the big game on Saturday, right?’. He just didn’t want anyone to punch me or hurt me. Of course, my knight in shining armor wasn’t always there to protect me. He felt awful about it too. He hated seeing me in the hallways with a fresh purple and blue bruise lining the bottom of my eyes or new scratches on my cheek. He hated not being able to kiss me good morning when I got to school and I hated it too. But, he wasn’t ready and I would wait for him.

I pulled my Algebra II textbook from the top shelf of my locker and closed it and then waited for Niall like I always did. Niall would stop to talk to this girl, Lauren, he had been liking for a while and they were pretty good friends. So I stood by my locker waiting the extra two minutes like I always would. I pulled out my phone in the meantime and started scrolling through some text messages from Zayn last night. I smiled to myself reading his corny jokes he would send me to put a smile on my face when I was stressed or upset.

Suddenly, I felt my whole body be jerked into the cold metal lockers. The handle of one door slammed into my back and I whimpered at the shock of pain and the rough strong hands crushing my shoulders and pinning me on my back.

“Hey, faggot,” I heard the familiar voice whisper in my face.

“Ryan, let me go,” I muttered. Ryan was a member of Zayn’s football team and was considered about as popular as Zayn but as dumb as a sack of rocks.

“Oh, shit, I am petrified,” he said in an over dramatic voice, leaning closer in.

“Wow, I didn’t know that word was even in your vocabulary,” I retorted.

Within a second, one of his fists had let me go, swung back, and made contact with my right cheek.

“Ryan! Let him go,” Niall shouted showing up behind him. Another one of them grabbed Niall and held him back and I waited for Ryan’s next punch.

“Ryan, dude! We have to get to class!” I heard Zayn rush out his words all within the second. It was worse when he saw me get punched but he wasn’t there just a minute ago. He must have heard Niall.

“Hold on, Z. I have to finish this one off. You want to take a swing, man?” he asked turning to Zayn briefly. I caught his glance at me and his caramel eyes were screaming ‘I’m sorry’.

“No, man, I want to get to class and not to the principal’s office. Now, let’s go,” he urged.

Ryan let out an annoyed sigh before roughly letting me go. With that, the six or seven varsity jackets tromp off with echoing laughs coming from down the hallway.

“Shit, Liam, are you alright?”

“Not like I haven’t felt it before,” I said nodding.

“Dude, I am so sorry. I should have been over here.”

“Ni, it’s okay, really.”

“I have to get to class,” he said slowly. I could tell he still felt awful.

“Go then, don’t let Mr. Welder give you  _another_ tardy. You’ll get a detention this time.” I patted his back and smiled at him. He gave me a smile out of the corner of his mouth and ran in the other direction. I huffed and marched off to y Algebra II class.

I walked into the room and all eyes turned on me. Silent snickers and ‘faggot’ and ‘homo’ exchanged plenty of times.

“Take a seat, Liam,” my teacher, Mr. Tomlinson, said giving me a weak smile. He was my favorite teacher because he actually gave two shits about the hell I go through and stopped it before he saw it happen.

I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket and swiftly pulled it out and held it under the desk.

_Zayn: Meet me in the bathroom in five minutes_

I quickly looked up as Mr. Tomlinson neared me as he went around checking everyone’s homework from last night.

“Can I use the restroom?” I asked politely once he reached my desk. I sat by myself near the back so people didn’t throw shit at my back. I was definitely not the favorite here.

“I’m giving you two eight minutes,” he warned me. He knew about Zayn and he was the only one to know besides Zayn and me ourselves.

I nodded and he waved me off so I bolted to the door and made my walk across the school. There was a bathroom in the A Hall that no one ever used because it was purely disgusting, even for a high school boys’ bathroom. Zayn met me there on occasions during class and it was often to apologize.

I walked into the dingy bathroom with my hands stuffed into the front pockets of my jeans. I smiled shyly at Zayn who was leaning against a wall with a cigarette between his lips. I quickly grabbed it between my fingers and pulled it from his mouth.

“You can’t do that here, Z. We don’t want you getting in trouble with the school and the team,” I reminded him. He smiled at me and took my face between his soft hands. I winced at the contact on my cheek that Ryan punched and Zayn instantly flinched.

“I am so, so, so sorry, Liam. I should have been there. Hell, I should always be there.” he pressed a gentle kiss to my lips and I smiled into it. I couldn’t help it.

“It’s okay, Z.”

“No it isn’t damn it! And I wish you would quit telling me that because it isn’t. Look at you, for God’s sakes! You have that damn bruise on your cheek and last week your nose was bleeding from when Lucas hit you and I am so damn tired of looking like a shitty boyfriend. I hate seeing you hurt and I can’t put up with it anymore.”

“Zayn-”

“Meet me by your locker before lunch.”

“But Zayn someone might see us,” I said.

“Trust me.”

“I do.”

“Good,” he smiled wrapping his arms around my waist. He lightly kissed the bruised cheek and then leaned in for another kiss to the lips.

“Liam”

“Zayn,” I answered. He chuckled weakly before string into my eyes.

“I-I-uh-I love you,” he stuttered slowly. He had never said that before and I felt my whole heart stop.

“I love you too.” I laughed and he smiled brighter than the sun. He kissed me again and it felt like it lasted for an eternity but it didn’t. Eventually I had to pry him off of me because our eight minutes were almost up and I couldn’t let down Mr. Tomlinson.

“I love you,” he repeated walking out the door.

“I love you too,” I repeated and then he was gone.

—

I practically ran to my locker after fourth hour but I had to keep my eagerness from showing so I sort of strolled. As I drew nearer to the locker bay, I saw the raven black quiff rising above the lockers and I smiled to myself. He turned around and smiled brightly at me.

“Hi,” I said shyly when I reached him. I had never really spoken to Zayn inside school unless we were alone.

“Hi,” he said back more confident, “I got something for you.”

I raised an eyebrow at him and he just laughed. He shrugged off his varsity jacket and threw it over my shoulders.

“What are you doing?”

“Letting my boyfriend wear my jacket, what does it look like?”

I slid my arms through the sleeves and he smiled smugly at me.

“What?”

“You look kind of hot in it I must admit,” he chuckled and I laughed. This was so weird…but good weird. A couple people were looking at us but he didn’t care so I guess I shouldn’t either.

“Would you give me the honor of accompanying me to lunch this afternoon?” he asked me offering his hand.

“Are you sure about this?” I whispered.

“Never been surer about anything else in my life, love,” he smiled taking my hand.

So there we were, the faggot loser and the sexy jock, hand in hand walking to lunch together. I was wearing his varsity jacket which had his name printed in bold letters on the back and he never looked happier.

As we made our way to the ‘Jock Table’, everyone was staring at us in either shock, disgust, or both.

“Hey guys,” Zayn said casually setting his backpack down on his usual seat when we reached the table. He still had a tight grip on my hand and his teammates were in utter shock.

“Hey, Eric, can you move over one seat for Liam? I want to sit by him,” Zayn said like it was no big deal.

“What the fuck are you doing, Malik?” Ryan spat. He was the one who looked most shocked.

“I was just asking him to move over one seat.”

“Why the fuck are you holding his hand, why is he wearing your jacket, and why is he sitting with us?”

“Well, I’m holding his hand because he is my boyfriend, he’s wearing my jacket because he looks hot in it, and he is sitting with us because I think you guys could be good friends. He’s a great kid,” Zayn simply answered. He was acting so casual about it I was laughing a little although I was scared out my wits.

“I am  _not_ friends with a faggot!” Ryan shouted back. All eyes were on us now and I could spot Niall out of the corner of my eye. Everyone was just staring and watching.

“Would you stop calling my boyfriend a fucking faggot? It doesn’t make you cool!” Zayn shot back.

“How would you know? You’re just a homo faggot too.”

“Hey!” I shouted surprising everyone. The cafeteria was dead silent besides the three of us.

“No.one.calls.my.Zayn.a.faggot,” I said slowly, annunciating every word.

“What did you say to me?” Ryan said getting closer.

“Ryan, leave him alone,” Zayn warned him stepping in front of me.

“Fine,” Ryan piped before smashing his fist into Zayn’s eye. He groaned in pain as he fell to the floor, the punch knocking him off his feet.

“Z!” I shouted kneeling beside him. I felt hands grip my shoulders from behind me and push me to the floor. Ryan was standing over me and was smiling grimly at me as I lay on my back on the floor.

I could see a big group of guys crowding around Zayn and they scooped him up and pinned him to the wall. They took turns punching him and the sight wanted to make me throw myself off a cliff.

“Stop it! Just stop it!” I shouted helplessly. I’ve never seen him like that before and I wanted to burst into tears.

“Guys, stop it!” I heard Niall yell and then I saw him rush towards us but was stopped by other guys on the team.

“Ryan!” I shouted in his face but he just punched my face. I couldn’t watch it anymore so I kneed Ryan right where it counted. His face turned red and he yelped out in pain and fell to the floor next to me. I got up and tried to push past these guys but one of them held me back. They were still punch Zayn and he looked like he was going to just drop.

“HEY! HEY! HEY!” Mr. Tomlinson shouted running up to the scene. He broke it up and Zayn dropped to the floor on his bum. The one guy let me go and I dashed over to Zayn. Meanwhile, lunch was excused (we only had a few more minutes anyway) and the whole group of guys were sent to the office. Niall talked to Mr. Tomlinson there in the cafeteria and he was given a pass to class.

“You two should get to the nurse,” Mr. Tomlinson said once it was just us three. We helped Zayn up and he was supported by both of us, one arm over me and one over Mr. Tomlinson, to the nurse.

—

I snuck out of my room at midnight to go check on Z. He had gone home after the nurse’s office like I did but did not answer any of my calls that night. I snuck into the backyard and knocked lightly on his window. He had a room in the basement so it was easy access to it when I came over sometimes. The window was right on the ground. I heard his feet shuffle towards me but didn’t see his face until he lifted the blinds up. He had newly formed red marks and bruises on his cheeks and above his eyebrow.

“What happened?” I asked as her lifted the glass and screen part of his window. I climbed through and my feet barely hit the ground before he grabbed me by my waist and pulled his lips to mine. He started crying while we were kissing so I pulled his head from mine and placed it on my shoulder. I felt the salty drops start to stain the shoulder of my sweatshirt.

“You’re okay, baby. It’s okay,” I said running my hand up and down the back of his head.

“My…my dad…hit me. You know for…”

“…for being gay.” I finished for him.

“Li”

“No, it’s okay. I get it,” I persisted.

“I still love you, more than anything.”

“I love you too,” I said. He kissed me again and we lay down on the bed.

“We’re going to make this work, Liam. No one is taking you away.” He assured me and I smiled. He had fallen asleep with his arm around my waist and I listened to his heartbeat. I don’t know how we were going to make it work, and I don’t know how long it would take. But, lying in his arms that night, I knew from there that no matter work, we would make it work. I couldn’t see a world where it didn’t work. I fell asleep to the soothing sounds of his breathing, never being happier in my life.


End file.
